In The Light of Nights (And The Dark of Days)
by Madiaval
Summary: A year after King Stefan's death, with her wings back, Maleficent sees no more use for Diaval's services. He begs to disagree.
1. Freeing Diaval

**Chapter 1: [****Friendzoning]**** Freeing Diaval**

'Twas exactly a year after the King's fall; 'twas a year of pixies and fairies, and knights and humans living in concord and amity. The moor's lake was black but the fairies' winglets and creatures that bear and sparkle light in shades of yellow, and green, and purple, seemingly dancing under the twinkling starlight, drowned the water's darkness and filled the night with luster, color and bright.

The castle, now iron-free, of course, shares the evening's festive mood with the neon banners and red and blue flaglets that hang over its walls and over the fair that house stands of food and liquor, dancing merriment and singing gaiety.

'Twas Queen Aurora's 17th birthday. _Long-live-the-queen _chants were sung in drunken hurrahs and mud was thrown in laughing faces as the whole, vast kingdom, both the enchanted and the mortal sectors, celebrated goodness in oneness and goofiness.

In the tar-filled mayhem, Diaval was still holding his sides as he shook with laughter as he witnessed Thistlewit and Knotgrass ganging up on, and throwing a seemingly endless pile of black mud on Flittle's face when he heard something he almost never does; Maleficent's unrefined, childlike laughter.

He looked up and saw Maleficent laughing at the Queen and Phillip for having themselves involved in the mess. Their crowns were tainted and their faces and party dresses were soiled. By the look on their faces, it was _Maleficent_ that got them involved. The two of them candidly gestured toward Maleficent and shouted.

"Get her!" All of them, the enchanted and the mortals, got themselves as huge a pile of mud they could muster into their hands (or tentacles) and started chasing Maleficent. She lifts off the ground and her wings carried her with grace. Diaval watched mesmerized and slack-jawed as she effortlessly dodged their attacks like a black angel pirouetting gracefully in the night skies.

Catapults were being loaded with mud, and their operators waited for the Royals' command. Aurora and Phillip shouted "Fire!" in unison at the same time Maleficent incanted "Enter giant flying squirrel" and flicked her finger.

Diaval felt his body soften like the mud they throw around him and, with ease, resiliently changed into a giant fur-ball of a cute-yet-intimidating giant flying squirrel. He felt something weigh atop him and realized that it was Maleficent that was riding him.

"Giddy up." Maleficent said in her usual monotonous tone. Catapulted mud stained his whole, giant squirrel wings and squirrel body as Maleficent used him as a shield as they glided through the loud shouts and raucous laughter that pierce through the cool night. Though he can't see anything, since she was out of his line-of-sight, Diaval knows that Maleficent was smiling; that Maleficent was enjoying herself. He looked up and checked if the moon was blue. Strange, because it was not.

Diaval thought that in the year that has passed, Maleficent grew younger. In a sense that with her playfulness, the smiles she brought to every enchanted being when she was younger were back, and now, she brings smiles to humans as well, and most important of all, she brings smiles to herself. Diaval smiled through his squirrel mouth as he thought of how people slowly accepted her as a friend despite her menacing, intimidating traits. Diaval shouted through the wind, along with everybody else.

"You're enjoying this too much!" But it came out as a garbled, squirrel squeak as he forgot his current form.

"Now, now, it would all be over soon." Maleficent coolly and self-assuredly said, and, somehow, Diaval's high spirits turned somber as he overthought of what that could have meant.

* * *

With Stefan's descent and Maleficent acquiring her wings back, followed the decline of Maleficent's ordering around Diaval. When Stefan still plotted of Maleficent's downfall, Diaval's orders were longer than an emo-teenager's self-harm playlist.

He exhaustedly flew through chilly winds and freezing drizzles to serve the woman who saved his life. At first he was bothered by her blackened heart and her ill will, so he flew through his missions like a private on mandatory orders. But as time went on, as he saw Aurora thaw Maleficent's frozen heart, he found himself flying through hismissions with a smile.

As he saw Aurora grow into a beautiful woman, he saw Maleficent's heart grow as well. And one night while he was flying through the thorns Maleficent's put up around the moors, Diaval realized that his heart did too. That distracted and disabled him from seeing the wooden prickle that punctured his left wing. As he fell through the thick thickets of thorns, Diaval realized that he was falling in two ways and he was frightened. He was scared as the thought of navigating through the thorns Maleficent put up around her own heart crossed his mind.

While he flew with ache and difficulty, he thought of the things that Maleficent and he did together whenever they were not watching over Aurora or getting ready for Stefan's judgment day; they patrolled around the moors every other night, quickly flying over the vast, sleeping land, through the calm silences of midnights, and under the pale glow of the silver moon, Maleficent riding Diaval as a giant night owl.

She orders him to find the parents of lost creature-lings, revives wilted flower bushes, and heals the fair folk who were wounded and injured either while goofing around or while defending the moor from the mortals. And for those who did not make it, she orders him to bury them in a barren area that seems to be a graveyard specially made by her to honor their efforts.

She disinterestedly flicks her fingers in lightning speed correcting the wrongs in the moor, even the littlest broken twigs, in a… snap. ( o_o)… (⌐■_■)

That was why when he was injured, he didn't care for his wound because he knew that a little flick of Maleficent's fingers could heal him.

And when their patrolling was finished they view the beautiful oddities of the dark moor while sitting on the branch of the highest tree, in the highest hill, in the far corner of the moor, where they share the stillness of things in peace and companionable silence.

"Wonderful job, Diaval." Maleficent says neutrally, lacking warmth. As if she thanks him just because it was societal convention to do so. And although it seems that way…

"Thanks, you too." Diaval says, just as cool (although it was barely under the control of betraying no emotion), which was funny, for every time he hears Maleficent praise him (societally conventionally), he has this ember-like feeling consume him.

He barely made it back to report to Maleficent in one piece due to the rough weather and his injured wing. Her cape gently swayed with the gentle breeze over a cliff that oversees the moor as she flicked her finger to turn Diaval into a man.

Blood was still flowing from the wound on his left shoulder and it painted his pale, white, sculpted, human body with crimson lines that drew random patterns down his arms.

He was gasping and shaking when he reported that the King was steadily completing his preparations to bring her down and she told him to tell her things she didn't already know when his vision blurred and his knees gave out.

Maleficent sophistically turning around at his grunting noise to see him, her brows raised slightly in concern, her face in stoic consideration – her eyes like blue-green flame, and warm hands hovering over his open wound were the last things he remembered before he slipped into black oblivion. Oh, and he also wondered why she actually hovered her _whole_ hand over him when she could just flick her _fingers_. Then, really, he slipped into black oblivion with a smile and the hope of being someone special.

* * *

They landed safely on their nest. Diaval was referring to their just-finished-patrolling tree and he felt a little tingly as he referred to it as _their nest_. Up there, they were safe from the mud-slinging. Maleficent turned Diaval into a man and his face and a large expanse of his body was covered in black and he glared at her spotless cleanliness.

"Oh come on that was funny." Maleficent said as she chuckled. She chuckled. He checked the moon again if it was blue and from his peripheral vision, he can tell that Maleficent also looked up. The two of them stood on a branch, staring up at the dark, gray sky. Maleficent flicked her finger to clean him.

"You know, you can go now." Maleficent said solemnly. "I have my wings back and I no longer need your services." Suddenly, it felt like the celebrating kingdom was faraway. Diaval successfully schooled his expressions but not his emotions. He breathed deeply and tried to reply when Maleficent quickly cut her off.

"You have been a wonderful servant." Diaval saw movement from his side and realized that Maleficent turned to look at him. "Thank you, for being my wings when I thought that I have lost them for good." Diaval felt a fire start in his lungs and he took deep breaths to put them out. Diaval refused to look back at her as he tried to count the stars that shined brightly to distract himself. Maleficent looked up again and cut him off again before he could reply.

"Wings bespeak freedom." Maleficent said with serious conviction. "And I seem to keep yours in chains." Maleficent's face grew haunted like she tries to run away from the immortal ghost of an undying memory.

This time, he turned his head to look at Maleficent as he remembered the story Aurora told him 'bout the time the king slashed off her wings. He came to to a wingless Maleficent and he thought of what a wingless her could've felt when she used to fly freely into the clouds above. He felt a twinge in his chest and a pulse skip over his heart – a cross of sympathy, want of un-burying Stefan and torturing him by cutting his legs and arms, and an unfamiliar desire to protect. Which was unnecessary because he knew well that she could do that herself.

This time, it was Maleficent that didn't want to look back at him as she continued to stare at the cloudless night; her face a sad melody that colored his heart blue.

"You deserve to be free." Maleficent turned and the two of them locked eyes. Diaval saw that they weren't the luminous blue-green they used to be, and in their dimness, he assumed that the things going around in her mind and out of her lips are against each other. He felt warmth spread through his taut veins as he felt, well, assumed, that Maleficent was feeling melancholic over his departure.

"And that's an order." Maleficent said as she looked back up again.

"Okay." He said, agreeing, testing the waters.

"Oh." Maleficent's face turned gloomier.

"That means I get to do what I want to do right?" Maleficent nodded and snapped her fingers. A bright green light enveloped Diaval's body and he glowed like a thousand fireflies dancing in the night. He expected to be turned into another form but he stayed human.

"What did you do?"

"I'm giving you the ability to turn into anything you want to be. You earned it." Maleficent smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. With each passing second, their colors faded.

He concentrated and thought of ravens and he flinched when he literally heard the bones in his left shoulder break, and it felt clammy, and itchy, and unbearably painful all at the same time. A reflexive growl tore through his throat. He felt like the blood that was flowing through his left arm was a blend of bad wine and mercury.

His left arm became a huge, raven wing but the rest of him stayed human. It was only when a drop of sweat from his chin fell down his naked torso when he realized that he was breaking a sweat.

"This didn't hurt before." Diaval said, wiping away the sweat in his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Practice makes perfect." She said, laughing feebly and mirthlessly at his failed attempt. "And it probably hurts because when you transform without my help, it is _your_ body that facilitates _my_ powers. It needs some getting used to."

"Now, I both get to _do_ what I want and _be _what I want?"

"That's right."

"Then, I want to be your servant." She finally turned to face him, one of her brows was lifted, her face contorted in confusion. She had dozens of question ready for firing when he quickly cut her off.

"Back then, you told me you needed me to be your wings because you don't have them. Now, I'm telling you to be my master because I don't have one." A breeze blew through them and Maleficent's hair danced with it.

"Besides, I need a trainer for this." He wiggled his wing and that earned him a chuckle and a lit-up face.

"That's different, I can't live without my wings, well, I did but it was a horrible, horrible experience. You on the other hand, living without a master, living freely without having to heed to a finger snap, flying across waters and greeneries at will will be an indescribable, fascinating experience." Her face was bright as she probably thought of her flying experiences when she was younger.

"You deserve to be free." She repeated as her face turned subdued again.

"And I deserve to choose to be yours." His face heated and he quickly tried to recover. "Your servant, I mean. I'm no longer staying for paying a debt for you saving my life back then. I'm staying because you're dear to me now and I wish to be free with you bossing me around."

This time, Maleficent's smile did reach her eyes, their color like the early, morning sky, the bright yellow sun piercing through the bluest hues.

She seemed to not notice Diaval's indirect confession and she just flapped her wings and started to lift off the ground.

"You are a strange little man." She said in her sultry yet monotonous voice.

"And you are-"He was unable to complete his statement as a huge ball of black mud, made by Maleficent, hit him in the face.

Out of balanced, he fell from the very, high tree. He can't fly with just one wing and he can't seem to complete his transformation. All the while, Maleficent was flying down with him, but was not helping him.

"You are a dear friend to me too." She said sentimentally.

"And I think that this is the best time you prove it by helping me." He shouted through his fast free-fall. He tried hard to think of ravens and that just got him headaches and feverish aches. He felt a splitting pain in his legs as his right foot turned into a claw.

"I need a right wing! Not a right claw." He shouted and tried to turn his head to Maleficent while falling. "Anytime now!" He screamed at her. They fell for a few more seconds, Maleficent getting entertainment from a screaming Diaval.

It was only when they were ten feet from the ground when she helped him with his transformation and the two of them hovered over a giant-alligator-filled lake. Diaval's form was that of a human with huge raven wings.

"I think that you are a terrible friend!" Diaval exclaimed in between short, shallow gasps.

"That was funny." She laughed her childlike laugh and he followed suit and the two of them laughed over the hungry alligators. Diaval's laugh was stopped abruptly when another huge ball of mud hit him in the face. She saw that Maleficent was still laughing as she flew away.

"I'm changing my mind!"


	2. Training Diaval

Maleficent trains Diaval with his new ability. Aurora and Phillip train Diaval on how to treat women. Diaval is still cute.

Hi, I hope this follow-up doesn't disappoint.  
I introduced an OC here for a little love triangle. She dies don't worry. LOLJK. She's just friends with Diaval. Or is she?  
Endless thanks to flamingdongsaeng for his editing skills! Salute.

True Love's kiss comes next chapter. Please bear with me and #ShipThemLikeFedex

**Chapter 2: Training Diaval**

As Diaval fell, he was shouting in pain for trying to transform, and in fear, knowing that his landing area is a skeleton-bone-filled den of huge, lion-like monsters whose teeth are of rhinoceros' tusks and whose furs were long steel spikes.

The vision of having his white-rabbit form barbecued in the metal thorns forced him to try harder. But alas, he was still a rabbit, was falling quickly, and the hungry growling of the beasts were too close for his comfort.

Just when he was inches away from being food, Maleficent caught him in her right hand and she flew up so that the two of them were out of the starving beasts' reach. They landed on the roof of an uninhabited cottage in the middle of the woods. Maleficent looked right into the eyes of an unintelligibly snuffling and grunting rabbit, while talking to him like he was an infant.

"Awwww, my poor baby rabbit." She said, her voice low and teasing. "I thought that if I throw you in danger, adrenaline will help you cope with it."

"Well, apparently, it didn't!" Diaval tried to say, which he couldn't, because he was a rabbit. He stood somewhat steadily in Maleficent's palm on his bunny feet and he puffed out his chest to make himself bigger. He glared at Maleficent's smiling eyes and his insides melted when _Maleficent_ finally let out the chuckle she seemed to hold back.

He looked into her eyes that were bright like wildfire and yet calm like a lake. They were the shade of the lively, green grass of the moor but when under a twilight sky. And as he stared deeper into them, he saw a woman of pride and grace. He saw a woman whose scars run deep and yet still smiles at the simplest of things and takes her time to appreciate them. In her eyes, he sees fire.

He stopped short as he realized that his hand, which was now human, was hovering over the space between his human face and Maleficent's cheek. He was surprised that a) he was able to transform without pain and b) that he was unconsciously trying to reach her and caress her face. He realized that he was temporarily lost in a subspace their eyes created and that in that place, it felt…

There was no word for it. It just _felt_.

He coughed and shivered as he realized that the cold wind was whipping past his wingless, naked form and the trance they were in was broken. It was awkwardly silent for a bit more as the two of them looked away and fixed their gazes at anything as long as it's not each other.

Maleficent flicked her finger and, in an instant, Diaval was clad in a black, velvet robe.

"How come when you transform me I am already fully clothed but when I do it myself, I end up naked." Diaval said as nonchalantly as he could. Goosebumps broke out all over his body, and sensing that this was an uncomfortable moment, he hugged his robe tighter and closer to his body to conceal everything the garment could.

"Because… you…" hesitation stilted a still-looking-away Maleficent. "You can transform to whatever you wish or think to be… and… perhaps…" the sound of crickets and the distant hoots of a night owl are magnified by their quietness.

"You perceived of being a man… without garments." Maleficent finished weakly.

Diaval's blood rushed to his neck, to his cheeks, and to the ends of his ears – the sensation familiarly close to trying to transform.

"I did not!" he said with forcefulness. He clung to his robe feeling very vulnerable. When they locked eyes, they looked-away again and the two of them were staring in opposite directions, Maleficent at the weathered roof of the cottage, Diaval at the very thin, crescent moon.

"Well… I, uh, believe that that is it for tonight. We'll train more tomorrow." Maleficent did not wait for a reply and just flew away, dismissing a flustered Diaval.

In his nest, which was a small tree-house he manually built that rests on a low oak tree, he tried to get comfortable on the makeshift bed made of piled-up, young, pine tree leaves. He looked at the jagged, rectangular crevice right beside him that serves as his window.

Ever since Maleficent told him he was free and replied that he didn't want to be, Maleficent agreed but insisted that he explore on his own and enjoy being alone; she said that it was so much fun to fly alone in the moors when she was younger and suggested that he try it too. It was. It did feel free and lively and it was indeed indescribable. Then, he got to build this nest where he now stays and where he pondered and realized that flying alone was indeed fun but that it was not the same without flying with Maleficent.

He closes his eyes and tries to sleep but Maleficent's "Awww, my poor baby rabbit" ring and echo through his head like a too loud lullaby. And when he sees the crescent moon outside his window, he is reminded of Maleficent's blue-green, sky-meets-horizon colored eyes and they serve to be night lights, too pretty and too bright, that he'd rather fall into their depths than into sleep.

The break of dawn came and he didn't have even just a minute of shut-eye. He sat with frailty and decided he needed to talk to someone. Someone he thinks that had been through exactly what he's currently in.

The morning sun enveloped the moors with unforgiving brightness and heat. The waters twinkle in elegance and the morning dew catches light and sparkles as well. He never really got to enjoy the moors because he was always flying around. Currently being wingless, he was forced to have a long walk toward the kingdom. He didn't dare try to transform because his body felt strengthless and he might turn to a worm and that would be worse.

Outside the castle, the nobles, the merchants, the scribes, everyone, smile gleefully at the clear day. People who knew him greeted him with brief pleasantries and a blessed day ahead.

Inside the grand castle, on his way to King Phillip, he was distractedly walking when a fair maiden, who works as a cook in the castle, ran into him.

"Oh, Diaval! 'Tis you." Divine said joyfully.

"Great to see you, Divine." Diaval smiled and he yawned for the sleep he didn't get.

They talked about the weather, and how they were, and how the cookies were, and they laughed, and Divine said she has to go, so they said their goodbyes.

Diaval met Divine about a month ago when they bumped, literally, into each other when Maleficent asked him to deliver a message to the queen. Back then, she was bringing a tray of cookies and pastries and when they scattered on the floor, Divine said that that would be 15 pieces of silver and Diaval said he doesn't have any and he looked so guilty like a kid caught biting off a chocolate candy bar he wasn't supposed to and Divine laughed and told him she was just pulling his leg and that it was okay and that her name was Divine and Diaval replied with his and they've been friends since.

When Diaval was to proceed to the King, he saw Aurora a few feet away with a smirk that seemed _so_ out of place in her sweet, innocent semblance.

"Oh! I think it's better to talk to you, your Majesty." Diaval said with a humble bow.

"What is it? Although I have an inkling." the Queen replied, a smug look on her face.

"You do?"

"Is it about a woman?"

"How… did you know? Have you always noticed this before?" Diaval's voice was small and raised.

"Oh come on, it's impossible to miss!" Aurora said with surety.

"Really?" Diaval asked, suddenly conscious of the sideway glances she stole at Maleficent whenever she laughs, the stares he unconsciously gave her whenever she ordered him around in a friendly, yet still bossy way, and the too-hard laughter he did whenever Maleficent bullied Thistlewit and her companions.

"Diaval? Are you still there?" Aurora said waving a hand in front of him.

"Oh, yeah." Diaval snapped out of his flashbacks and decided to be straightforward. "Is it… uh, like this?" Okay, too much for being straightforward.

"Do you mean, thinking about him whenever a dull moment arises? Having difficulty sleeping because his hands, his eyes, his hair, and the way his mouth moves when he talks haunt your mind?" Aurora's face – lost in a daydream.

"Your highness." It was Diaval's turn to try and snap Aurora out of her romantic reverie. "You're thinking of King Phillip aren't you?"

"And you were thinking of _her_, weren't you?"

Diaval nodded shyly.

"But, it wasn't like this before."

"What do you mean?" Aurora said with a befuddled expression on her face.

"I didn't feel about her like this before… but…" Diaval trailed off, not knowing how to describe what he feels.

"But, suddenly, one day you wake up and you realize you want to hold her hand and play with her hair? And as each day passes, you yearn for more."

Diaval blushed shyly, yet the red tinge was furious and unabashed.

"Oh, pretty bird." Aurora said, her voice filled with sympathy and warmth. "This woman has you wrapped around her fingers, reducing your virility to blushing and nodding shyly."

Diaval laughed. "She _does_ have me wrapped around her _fingers_."

Aurora gasped, her eyes wide, as if having a brilliant idea. Aurora snapped her fingers and two knights came out of nowhere and bowed humbly. "Your Highness." The two of them said in sync.

"Just like that." Diaval whispered to his smiling self. "Just like that."

"Guards, take this man to the tailors. Tell them to dress him up real prettily and take him back to me in mid-afternoon." Aurora said commandingly, yet still in an amicable manner. "Yes, your Highness." The two of them said in unison. They hooked their hands in Diaval's pits and they dragged him across the room.

"Wait! Your Majesty, what's happening?" Diaval asked Aurora as he seemed weightless to the huge guards that carry him.

"Just stand still and don't prick your fingers on spindles."

* * *

"Godmother! Godmother!" Maleficent saw Aurora excitedly, gracelessly jump from her carriage, and into her arms.

"Beastie." Maleficent said. Suddenly realizing she was talking to the Queen, she quickly took that back. "Your Highness."

Aurora looked up from their embrace. "Don't be silly, you can call me anything you want." The two of them smiled.

"Alright then. So, what is it that brings you here bouncing in fervor?"

"It's Diaval!" Maleficent stopped at that and thought of how Diaval seems to act strangely these days. In quick consecution, the stiff silences they shared and the unnecessary glances she stole whenever he laughed flashed by her. Her heart beat quickly and she wondered what that meant.

"He seems to have fallen for someone." Aurora announced excitedly.

"Oh?" Maleficent suddenly felt her insides turn as she felt old feelings resurface like an hourglass tipped over to start again. She shook her head and scolded herself that it can't be. _Diaval? Unimaginable_.

"Her name's Divine and she's _really_ pretty."

"Oh." Maleficent half-sighed, half-groaned.

"Yes, and I'm helping him get her. What do you say?"

"Goodie. Diaval and Divine. Their names match." Maleficent said with no enthusiasm at all. She was peppy to impassive in seconds flat. "That seems lovely." She said like how an emo-teenager would recite a poem about flowers and butterflies. Aurora sensed the drastic change in her demeanor.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Maleficent said coldly. "Who is this… Divine that you speak of?" Maleficent stared at Aurora. Aurora flinched and stepped back twice.

"Godmother. Your… your eyes. They're green. They… they glow." Aurora reached out to touch her but Maleficent looked away. Maleficent noticed that she seemed to do that often as of late.

Aurora gasped as if she realized something and Maleficent looked at her and she saw that her face was both unbelieving and piteous.

"What is it?" Maleficent asked.

"Oh, Godmother." Aurora said, her voice filled with melancholy.

"What?" A brief silence stretched between them and the gushing flow of a nearby river and the caws of the ravens that fly above them suddenly seemed loud.

"I'm sorry. It's nothing." Aurora shook her head sadly.

* * *

"What do you think?" Aurora asked Phillip as she motioned toward a finely clad Diaval. He wore a black tunic that was embroidered with regal patterns with a golden-like thread, black wool pants that are accented by a dangling gold chain, and boots, made of fine leather, with silver buckles. His hair was combed and styled to look like a warrior and a prince at the same time.

"He looks gorgeous and kingly doesn't he?" Aurora asked enthusiastically. Phillip nodded.

"Please tell me you're not leaving me." That made Aurora and Diaval laugh.

Aurora chuckled. "Someone's getting a little envious." Aurora smirked. "And someone's getting a _lot_ envious." She whispered to herself and looked wistful.

"Are you ready for your date?" Aurora asked a little somberly.

"What!? What date? Your Highnesses?" Diaval asked.

"Phillip, brief him." Aurora said.

"Here, take these flowers. If you meet a maiden that gets your heart, _always _get her flowers." Phillip said as he handed over to Diaval three, long-stemmed white roses bound tightly by a scarlet ribbon. Phillip took his right arm and Aurora, his left. The three of them walked around the castle in a fast pace. Aurora continued Phillip's briefing. "Tell her how she looks pretty whether under sunlight or moonlight. Smile at her when she smiles at you and always treat her like a diamond. Treat her with respect. And…"

They stopped before the gates to the courtyard. "That's about it." Aurora pat Diaval's back twice. "You can do this." She said.

The gates opened and at the gazebo, in the midst of a labyrinth of bushes, a table for two was prepared. There was wine and food that was fit for royalty. Diaval stared questioningly at the Queen and King.

"She's here. Get ready." Aurora said. They took off at the speed of lightning and disappeared into the bushes.

Suddenly, before him, Divine stood, dressed in a very simple red dress that emphasized her ethereal face.

"What are you doing here?" They said in unison.

"The Queen called for me to be here in my best dress." Divine said in a confused voice. Suddenly, things fell into place and Diaval shook his head.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Flowers for you?" He handed her the flowers and she thanked him for how lovely they were. He immediately explained the misunderstanding. "To be honest, I was just dragged into this, literally." They laughed and they sat and they ate and they enjoyed each other's company. Both of them cleared it out that they were just friends and that Divine actually had a crush on the Knight Commander. They laughed some more, good stories were shared, good wine was drank, good chicken was savored and good friendship was born.

"Don't you have someone? Someone like you should have someone." Divine asked.

"Well, I do have someone in _mind_." Diaval said.

"Does she know?"

"I don't know."

"Tell her then." Divine encouraged Diaval.

"I don't think I could."

"Why not?"

"I'm already hers." Diaval fidgeted with the white table cloth. "And, I don't think that she'd be mine _that_ way."

"Are you telling me you're her lackey?" Divine asked her brows raised in intrigue.

Before Diaval could answer, he heard a distant flapping of wings and turned his head around. He saw nothing and he thought that it was just a figment of his imagination.

* * *

"It wasn't her, your Highness." Diaval said to Aurora while doing his politest glare. The two of them locked eyes in a staring contest.

"Oh, Diaval. I'm flattered, but I'm with Phillip." Diaval broke down in laughter. Aurora and Phillip soon followed.

"With all due respect, you are definitely beautiful, your Majesty, but it's not you."

"Do I know this woman?" Aurora inquired.

"So well." Diaval said. In his face, the timeline wherein Maleficent cursed Aurora, watched over her and made sure to do everything she could to protect her, was etched in his nostalgic face. "So well, Aurora." Diaval started to walk away, leaving an open-mouthed, squealing Aurora behind.

* * *

Maleficent was riding two metal lions, her left hand holding their reins, her right hand was holding a half-eaten apple.

"Come on, Diaval, turn into a cheetah." Maleficent took a bite and watched laid-back as Diaval, currently in his rabbit form, ran as fast as he could. He was like a white dandelion swiftly maneuvering through the savage wilderness.

Diaval knew he was running out of both distance and breath, and that he was doomed. Maleficent seemed to be in a really sour mood. They were playing cat and mouse for a half an hour now, without breaks. Diaval ached everywhere. He tried once more to transform and his right leg exploded into a white ball of pain and it turned into a tiny human leg, and that made him lose his balance, and he tripped and he rolled and he knew he'd be food.

A sudden flash of Maleficent's red, luscious lips biting into the redder apple started another excruciating chain of pain through his body. The lions were near and their roars were louder than ever and he closed his eyes and just waited to be torn apart.

When that didn't come, he opened one eye and he realized that he was in his winged human form, flying above ground and out of the metal lions' reach.

"I did it!" He pumped his fists in the air. "Mistress, did you see that? I did it." Maleficent was right beside him and she smiled sadly.

* * *

"What's wrong?" Diaval asked, concern filling his eyes.

When Maleficent saw that Diaval was about to be eaten, she was about to flick her fingers when Diaval gracefully turned into a winged human. It was then that Maleficent realized that she never got to appreciate that transition because she was always looking away when she flicked her fingers. Okay, she realized that she's got to lessen her looking-away habit.

When she did see Diaval's transformation a while ago, it was as gentle as the shift from the break of dawn to the early sunrise. It was something she thought she'd like to see, and would never get tired of, every day.

When Maleficent saw Diaval transform on his own, she thought about the time that she said that she no longer needed him. Well, it seems that it is he who no longer needed her.

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." _In fact, everything's so right I wish that something was wrong so I'd have the excuse to say I need you again._

"Oh, by the way, how did your afternoon with _Divine _go?" Maleficent uttered _Divine _with such bitterness that it almost seemed tangible; like she drank bad whiskey.

"I think the Queen misread me. Divine's just a friend and she also sees it that way." Diaval explained with the defensiveness of a husband caught cheating on his wife. "And how did you know about that?"

"Aurora told me. She was excited about it. She said that, you seem to have _fallen _for someone." Maleficent said, her voice still bitter.

Before Diaval got to say things he thought he'd never admit, though he was a good height from the ground, a metal lion jumped and bit his wing and he screamed and yelped in pain.

* * *

With the explosion of pain on the edge of his left wing, he was dragged down back to the ground. He panicked and an unbearable warmth spread through his body as his form quickly and unstably jumped from creature to creature. A wolf, a snake, an elk, a catamount, a bear, a woman, a pixie… it seemed to go on forever. He heard Maleficent laugh at him as he struggled at the metal lion's big paws.

He turned into a giant metal lion and he roared so loudly, several flock of birds cawed and flew away. He pictured his winged human form again and it burned but it was not as stinging as before and he managed to transform, albeit it took him about a minute. He crossed his arms and flew at Maleficent's level; she was still laughing at him.

When she calmed down a bit, when the gentle breeze of the night wind was all they heard, he decided to break their calm silence.

"You look beautiful when you laugh." Diaval blurted out.

"What are you talking about?" Maleficent said, flustered. But it lasted only a few milliseconds.

"I am always beautiful." She added with a serious voice yet a little wobble implied that she was _still _laughing.

"I know." Diaval spoke very softly only the tiny fairies that provide light in these dark nights that suddenly surrounded them could hear it.

"What?"

"What?" Diaval repeated Maleficent, playing dumb.

"You said something."

"No. Nothing. Nothing at all." Which was a lie because, suddenly, he realized that Maleficent could mean _everything_ to him. And he looked up at the new moon wondering if she wasn't already.


End file.
